KINGSTON, R.I.,\u00a0Oct. 19, 2017\u2014It was written in the stars for Robert Coyne to be an astrophysicist.<\/p>\n
The cosmos first charmed Coyne as a 5-year-old boy during long car rides at night on Cape Cod with his dad, an astronomy enthusiast who made black holes seem magical.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d look at the night sky, and he\u2019d tell me what was up there\u2014what I could see and what I couldn\u2019t,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cIt just snowballed from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
This fall, Coyne joined the 溏心vlog免费B站 as a physics lecturer, and he expects to bring with him membership in an exclusive club: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, whose founders won the Nobel Prize in physics earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The international group of 1,200 scientists and technicians made headlines this week with the announcement that it had seen two neutron stars colliding 130 million light years away\u2014heralding a new era in astronomy thanks, in part, to the detection of gravitational waves. Born from the explosive death of larger stars, neutron stars are city-sized stellar objects with at least the mass of the sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to wonder what it might\u2019ve been like to witness the invention of the telescope, to get a chance to experience, firsthand, a brand new way of observing the universe,\u201d says Coyne, 32, now living in West Warwick<\/strong>. \u201cI don\u2019t have to wonder anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Historically, scientists have used light to study the cosmos. Now scientists are using fluctuations in gravity called gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space and time created when two objects spiral together and collide. It\u2019s like having a new sense. Now, in addition to seeing the universe, it\u2019s as if we can \u201chear\u201d it too.<\/p>\n Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, but scientists thought they were too weak to be detected. After decades of effort, two LIGO detectors, in Livingston, La., and Hanford, Wash., were built to sense tiny fluctuations caused by these waves. Spearheaded by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration has grown into a worldwide effort and has partnered with other observatories, including the Europe-based Virgo detector and some 70 ground- and space-based observatories.<\/p>\n In 2015, a ripple produced by the merger of two black holes was \u201cheard\u2019\u2019 by LIGO, and since then three more pairs of black holes have been detected, says Coyne. But the recent observation of two merging neutron stars\u2014also seen with telescopes\u2014is particularly significant because it marks the first time scientists have detected gravitational waves and light from the same event, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can learn a lot from observing something with gravitational waves, and we can learn a lot from observing something with light,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cWe can learn a lot more when we observe with both. This multi-messenger astronomy is the future of how we will unlock the universe\u2019s greatest mysteries.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time Coyne arrived at Bourne High School his knowledge of physics was impressive, but it was actually an English teacher who nurtured his love for the field.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was one of those teachers who had unbridled enthusiasm for engaging students in their interests,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cShe taught me how to be creative, which is crucial to a successful scientist. A good scientist knows how to think outside the box.\u201d<\/p>\n He studied physics at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and went on to get his doctorate, also in physics, at The George Washington University. He wrote his dissertation on gamma-ray bursts\u2014the explosion from two neutron stars smashing into each other\u2014and the gravitational waves that might come from them.<\/p>\n He joined LIGO in 2013 under the umbrella of his advisor\u2019s research group and continued with the collaboration while he was at Texas Tech University doing post-doctoral work. As a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, he has carved out a niche for himself as a data analyst and \u201carchivist\u201d responsible for tracking gamma-ray bursts. He hopes to continue his membership at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n \u201cLIGO is an enormous group of scientists all interested in a common goal\u2014doing astronomy with gravitational waves,\u201d he says. \u201cJoining isn\u2019t as easy as just signing up. To become a member, I had to show that I\u2019m doing important work for the collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n Coyne says observing the recent astronomical event in gravitational waves and light is exciting because it will help scientists learn more about the expanding universe, the composition of neutron stars, the origin of heavy elements like gold and silver, and the cause of some gamma-ray bursts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt might be tempting to call this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cBut the greatest thing about this discovery is that it\u2019s not once-in-a-lifetime; it is the first of many. Multi-messenger astronomy is just getting started, and just look at the cosmic mysteries we\u2019re already starting to unravel with only one event. Imagine what we\u2019ll learn once we\u2019ve seen 10, or 100, or 1,000. We\u2019ll find answers to questions we haven\u2019t even thought to ask yet.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Coyne\u2019s goals at 溏心vlog免费B站 is to get the public and non-scientists interested in science. In graduate school, he helped run astronomy nights at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and he\u2019s given many public talks. He also writes for social media, including Reddit\u2019s \u201cAsk Me Anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a preconception that in order to get involved with science you have to have an advanced degree. You don\u2019t,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cWe have citizen science projects where people can get involved with our research. I think that\u2019s so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n As for his father, also named Robert, Coyne says he is one of his biggest fans.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he could be happier with how things turned out,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cHe always had faith in me, and he always supported me.\u201d<\/p>\n Coyne is grateful for his father\u2019s inspiration. He dedicated his dissertation to his wife, Kristen, his mother, Becky\u2014and Dad.<\/p>\n \u201cHe got choked up,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cThat little kid asking questions about the sky is now answering them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I.,\u00a0Oct. 19, 2017\u2014It was written in the stars for Robert Coyne to be an astrophysicist. The cosmos first charmed Coyne as a 5-year-old boy during long car rides at night on Cape Cod with his dad, an astronomy enthusiast who made black holes seem magical. \u201cI\u2019d look at the night sky, and he\u2019d tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}